Myanmar’s government has appointed a minister and senior police chief to head an investigation into the killing of 10 Muslims by a Buddhist mob that has stoked communal tensions in the country’s Westernmost state.
The new reformist, civilian-led administration says national reconciliation and unity is one of its top priorities and its success in striking ceasefires with all but one of the country’s ethnic minority rebel groups may have played a part in the recent suspension of most Western sanctions.
The 16-member committee, headed by the deputy interior minister and second-in-command of the police, was given until June 30 to determine the “cause and instigation of the incident” and pursue legal action.
The announcement made no mention of the killings or the rape, referring only to “organized lawless and anarchic acts” in Rakhine state.
Opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi expressed condolences to Muslim leaders who visited her party’s offices on Wednesday and said there was an urgent need for justice and proper law enforcement.
“If one problem is not solved, another bigger one will happen. It is the responsibility of the Police and the courts to take prompt actions against the offenders,” Suu Kyi told reporters.
Earlier on Sunday, Buddhist vigilantes in western Myanmar attacked a passenger bus and killed nine Muslims. The bus was besieged near Taunggoke town in the western state of Rakhine on Sunday evening. Residents of the locality stated that the group committing the crime blamed some of the passengers for the murder of a Buddhist woman a week ago.
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